Another Link in the Great Chain
by Sly-Black-Rabbit
Summary: A Literary Chronicle of BioShock, retold through the eyes of my own character. All things not relevant to Raven are exclusive to Bioshock itself, but I threw in a few of my own plot adversities as needed. Enjoy!
1. Prologue

_ Raven's World: New Rapture_

Prologue 

"Wake up, would you kindly…?"

That was the first thing he'd heard. That annoying phrase that he'd come to know and hate. However, he found himself complying to the request subconsciously. Raven opens his eyes for the first time in several hours (he has no memory of what he was doing before he passed out), and takes in his new surroundings. From the wild rushing sounds coming from outside, he surmises that wherever this place was, there was a body of water nearby, and a storm was no doubt coming in… Once he had established these facts, he continued to survey the area.

Still sitting on the floor, Raven takes notice of the room's condition. The walls, though composite of little more than chalky green brick and putrescent mortar, seem stable enough. Directing his attention away from the nearest wall, he is suddenly caught off guard by a menacing golden face staring right back at him. From the center of the front wall, protrudes a massive golden bust of a man who looks to be in his fifties or so. The statue seemed exergonic, in its own disturbing little way, and its gaze haunted Raven to his core. Strung up crudely above the statue, suspended by thin and frail rope, was a red velvet banner with a questionable slogan emblazoned onto it. "NO GOD, NO KINGS, ONLY MAN". The banner ripples lazily in the breeze coming through the cracks in the mortar behind it. Underneath the statue's mounted plinth, is a doorway, opening to either side of the room. Raven, deciding he's seen enough, stands and walks cautiously across the room through the doorway.

The minute Raven passes the doorway, he feels a sick knot of surprise as his foot hits nothing but air, and he falls headlong down a staircase he hadn't noticed while examining the room. He comes to a stop in a circular room and sits there for a while. As soon as the pain in his back subsides, he gets to his feet again and feels around the dark room for a light switch. The room itself, as if sensing his intentions, turns on its own lights suddenly. The light flashes at a staggering wattage before turning dim. This flash causes Raven to shield his eyes and stumble into something in the center of the room. When the light above dims sufficiently, he removes his hands from his eyes and gazes upon a metal sphere, suspended above a hole that leads into the water. He places a hand on the cold surface of the odd mechanism and walks around it. Upon a more thorough inspection, Raven discovers the thing to be a bathysphere…

Raven sighs shakily to himself and touches the grime-covered window at the front of the bathysphere. "Nowhere else to go but down…", he mutters to himself. With the turn of a latch, the front of the bathysphere opens. He steps inside and is greeted by a haunting instrumental rendition of "Beyond the Sea". Instantly realizing the source of the eerie music, he turns to a shortwave service radio in the corner, just as the bathysphere closes. He reaches hesitantly for the radio and switches it off, but the music only seems to play louder as he does so. He gives up on the radio and turns again, this time noticing an ornate control lever. It's a curious thing, the simple machine. The instant Raven lays eyes on this lever, he is suddenly overcome with the urge to pull it. It wasn't curiosity, and it wasn't fear. There was a voice…. A voice he couldn't ignore for much longer--

"Would you kindly get this thing moving…?"

Yes. He'd kindly get this thing moving. Almost completely oblivious to his own movements, Raven reaches a shaky hand out fort the lever and pulls with purpose. Immediately afterward, he is thrown to the ground by the sudden movement of the bathysphere as it submerges. The new pain in his head reawakens the pain in his back and he lies there for a while. The inside of the bathysphere is bathed in a blue glow as it delves deeper into the ocean. When Raven lifts his head to the front window, he notices a neon sign ascending before the bathysphere's front. "18 Fathoms". How curious. Firstly, the glass of a neon light would never last under the pressure of 18 fathoms, unless it was made for these conditions. Secondly, if this _were _the case, what would anyone need with an underwater neon light…?

The bathysphere crashes to a halt in a dark cylindrical chamber. The aquatic sounds of the ocean outside become inaudible, signifying that the bathysphere has reached its final stop. Lights flicker on as the bathysphere opens up. Raven steps out and looks up. The ceiling, made of some transparent material, provides a full view of the ocean above. He continues into the room, fixated on the tranquil sights of the deep waters. Suddenly, his foot slides forward as it makes contact with something other than the floor. He looks down quickly, still disoriented by the trip. He moves his foot back a step and sees another banner like the one hanging above the statue, this one smeared with what looks like blood and a child's handprints… "WELCOME TO RAPTURE! OPPORTUNITY AWAITS…."

--To Be Continued


	2. Chapter 1

Raven's World: New Rapture

Episode One: Splicers, Plasmids and Cheap Wine

Raven allows himself a moment to examine the blood-stained velvet banner on the floor before stepping over it and taking a look around. This room is admittedly better than he expected. Though there was still very little light, he could sum up the room's major points. The scent of saltwater and sawdust. The feel of the smooth dark marble walls. It was hands-down the best part of his little trip so far. "Beyond the Sea" has long since been over, and the service radio now crackles with a deep static. Just as Raven decides that it's safe to continue on, a loud clanking noise comes echoing through the spacious chamber, the audial tumult vibrating against the chamber walls sending Raven to his knees…

The clanking sound continues for quite some time, gradually increasing in volume, as if the source were getting closer. Raven stands slowly and cringes as the sound grows to an unbearable decibel. Suddenly - mercifully - it stops. The last of the echoing dies down and the room is once again quiet, except for the static of the bathysphere's service radio, which now seems to be crackling out of control. The sudden increase in noise makes it difficult for Raven to think clearly. He hurries back to the bathysphere to silence the radio, but discovers it missing. It could've just been the concussion talking, but he felt like someone had passed by him without his notice.

Raven scratches his head in vexation. "Who could've taken the service radio without me seeing?", he puzzled. He then went on to ponder other thoughts out loud. Thoughts like: "Where exactly am I?", "Who would build a place like this?", and the ever poignant "Why am I talking to myself?". It was then that the service radio's static came back into earshot. This time, it sounded different somehow. So faint, so muffled, so…vertical? Raven looks up as he ends his reverie. Above the bathysphere, in the corner of a wall was a large vent with the grate horribly bent and mangled. Whoever or _what_ever just came and left, was now in the walls, and from the quickly-fading sound of the static, was apparently making his way deeper into the building. Raven searches the ground for a weapon before entering the vent. Inside a pile of wreckage, he discovers a dark red wrench, in surprisingly good condition. It was no excalibur, but it would do, he supposed. Now armed, or at least not _totally_ defenseless, Raven climbs into the vent and follows the fleeting sound of the static.

After several minutes of wandering through the duct, Raven arrives at an opening. Once again, the grate has been mangled beyond repair, making it easy for Raven to slide out from the duct and into the room. The room appears to be a main hall of some sort, with a wide staircase leading off to the left of him, and a dingy red carpet covering the hard floor. The metal door across the room (the name 'SECURIS' welded across the top) appears to be jammed, and it's control panel, adjacent to it on the wall, surges with wayward electricity, the socket slowly bleeding itself dry of any current. With the door out of commission, Raven decides to take the stairs. Upon reaching the landing, he bumps into a sign protruding from the wall ahead. He has to step back to see the entire thing. The sign displays what appears to be a group of people using strange powers and skills. Above the picture is a confusing message: "PICK YOUR PLASMID AND EVOLVE!"…

"Plasmid?", Raven asks to himself. "What would a place like this be using plasmids for…?" He continues up the stairs to see a vending machine with the glass bashed in. A neon sign flickers weakly above the machine. "GATHERER'S GARDEN". Inside the vending machine is a startlingly large syringe, full of blue liquid. Raven examines it and decides that he'd rather put it back, than chance it and inject himself. However, as he prepares to put it back, fate once again has other plans, and a loud screeching sound makes him turn to face the stairs. There's no one there, but he suddenly perceives a slight pain in his wrist. He is almost afraid to look down at his wrist, but forces himself to do so anyway. Just his luck; the syringe was thrust into his arm when he turned to investigate the noise, and is now emptying its contents into his bloodstream. He hurriedly removes the syringe and tosses it into the corner of the room. When it hits the wall and rolls back, he notices that it is now almost completely empty. Suddenly, his vision grows blurry, and his hands begin to tremble. A screaming pain ascends his spine, as if it were trying to grow out of his body. His blood is on fire, his eyes begin to burn and his heart begins to beat at unholy speeds. He loses himself in the pain and stumbles over to the banister behind him, flips over it and lands, unconscious, in the downstairs area…

"Look at this guy…"

"Ha. Poor bastard just spliced his first plasmid…"

"So what should we do with him?"

"Let's see if he's got any Adam on him…"

"Forget it. I think I hear it coming again. We have to--"

"Shut up! I ain't afraid of it! If this idiot's got any Adam left, it's mine! All mine to take!"

Raven slowly opens his eyes and blinks. There are two figures standing above him, arguing, with their backs turned. Their clothes are dull with dried blood and other questionable stains. They both wear odd masks - the kind that one might see at a masquerade ball- also darkened with blood, and both of them carry incredibly painful looking pipes. The two haven't realized that he's awake yet, and he takes the opportunity to look around for the wrench. The makeshift weapon lies just out of the reach of his left hand. To get it, he'd have to move, and to move, he'd have to not be in the presence of two crazy, raving sociopaths. When the odd pair finishes their spat, they turn toward Raven again, and he quickly shuts his eyes. The bolder one reaches for him as a familiar sound fills the room.

"Shut that damned radio off! It's getting' on my last nerve!", the dominant of the two shouts to his subordinate. The second runs off to carry out the order, and while their attention is elsewhere, Raven rolls to the side and grabs the wrench, then stands slowly. He takes a deep breath and taps the figure on the shoulder. "I thought I told you to shut off that --" CLUNK! Raven squeezes his eyes shut as the wrench makes contact and the recoil travels through the weapon and up his arms. The figure makes an odd guttural sound and crumples to the floor, motionless. The static stops and the second figure comes running back into the room, breathing heavily. "I got it!", he managed to blurt out before stopping for air. Raven approaches him quickly and prepares for another swing, his pulse suddenly quickening. The figure takes notice of him and immediately gets his second wind, clutching the rusted out pipe and running forward with a feral scream.

The figure swings wildly at Raven, who tries frantically to parry away the attacks with his wrench. The pipe connects with his arm, then his midsection, making him drop his weapon, then sending him tumbling into a corner. The figure follows, dragging his wrench along the ground, creating a steady stream of sparks. Raven holds out an arm to defend himself, and instantly feels the same pain as he did when he injected himself with the blue liquid. Glowing blue vessels appear on his arm and a bolt of lightning suddenly fires from the palm of his hand, sending the figure to the ground screaming. After a bit of writhing, the figure grows silent and motionless. Raven stands and looks at his hand in complete shock (no pun intended).

A bottle rolls into his foot. Raven kneels to pick it up, assuming it came from the figure who'd just been fried. The bottle appears to be half empty. He takes the time to examine the label. "ARCADIA MERLOT: THE ANSWER TO ALL YOUR PROBLEMS!" Raven can't help but laugh at the slogan. "I'll drink to that….", he says, raising the bottle to no one in particular and downing the wine quickly, then wiping his mouth with his sleeve and tossing the bottle behind him. The static returns yet again. Raven, deciding that this radio was becoming more trouble than it was worth, follows the sound and discovers it lying on its side in a corner. He prepares to stomp it, but a voice comes in fuzzy through the speakers.

"Anyone there? Would you kindly respond?!" There it was. The voice he heard when he had woken up in this madhouse. In a sort of daze, he quickly and obediently kneels and picks up the receiver. "Hello?" He adjusts the receiver against his ear. "Can you hear me?" The voice replies loudly, causing Raven to flinch and drop the radio, then stare at it in annoyance…

"Ah… Hey there. Glad to hear you're not one of them. Name's Atlas. Man, have I got some heavy news for you…"

-- To Be Continued


	3. Chapter 2

Raven's World: New Rapture

Episode Two: A Favor for Atlas 

Raven stares at the radio in awkward fascination. "Atlas…?", he repeats, scratching his head. He kneels beside the small device as Atlas responds: "That's right, boyo. I'm glad to hear you're not dead." Raven sighs rigidly and narrows his eyes. "That makes two of us…", he replies. "And what do you mean you have some heavy news for me…?" Atlas stalls a bit before answering, as if he was already certain how Raven would take this news of his. Finally, the radio buzzes in again: "Welcome to Rapture, kid. Thousands of leagues and fathoms from civilization as you know it."

Raven stands and attaches the radio's receiver to his belt. "What exactly is this place, Atlas?", he inquires while eyeing the two figures sprawled out on the floor. "I think I can show you better than I can tell you.", says Atlas. "Where are you now?" Raven takes another brief look around before raising his voice to reach the radio. After being reminded of the unpleasant experiences he's had in this room, he uneasily replies; "I'm in some sort of main hall. These two masked crazies just-"

"Splicers.", Atlas interrupts. "What?", asks Raven, rather annoyed at being cut off in mid-sentence.

Atlas continued: "Those masked crazies you're talking about? We call 'em Splicers." Raven wouldn't have to try very hard to remember that. "Anyway, they attacked me with pipes! I knocked one out while he was unaware that I was awake, but the other one…." Atlas urged him to continue. "What about the other one, lad? Would you kindly continue your story…?" Raven suddenly finds the words to carry on. "I-I zapped him with some sort of weird lightning from my hand…" Atlas speaks as Raven examines the steel door (the name 'SECURIS' welded across the top), which appears to be the only way out of the room. Atlas is surprisingly calm in his response. "Ah. So, you've spliced a plasmid into your genetic structure. First time's a real kick in the ass, ain't it, boyo?"

Raven fumbles with the door's controls, which are still short-circuiting. "I take it you've done that before then…?", he asks as the door panel falls from it's hinge, revealing a series of cut circuits. "You have to splice a few here 'n there if you wanna stay alive down here…", came the voice over the radio. In response to the open circuits, Raven's hand glows blue once again. He fires a shotgun blast of lightning, point-blank into the panel and the door flies open as the wiring is overcharged. "What was that?", came Atlas' voice. "You alright, lad?" Raven clutches his wrist and frowns. "I think I just found my way out of here…", he replies, then picks up his trusty wrench before walking through the door.

The hallway beyond the main hall is made completely of transparent fiberglass-like material. Within it, Raven can see the rest of Rapture. A massive cluster of buildings and signs fill the immediate outside area. Neon lights flash weakly on each building, and there are odd lights coming from the towers. A huge structure in the dead-center of Rapture catches his eye. The towering structure appears to be tall enough to stretch all the way to the surface. For some reason, it seems as familiar to him as his own beating heart, which has stopped in his chest more times than he would've liked today. It was how Raven figured Atlantis would look, if Atlantis were styled after New York… "Can you see the city, boyo?" Raven continues along the hallway and holds the radio to his mouth in response. "I'd have to try pretty hard _not_ to…", he says in a trembling voice.

"Now that you're out and about,", Atlas begins in a modest voice. "I have a favor to ask of you." Raven stops, surprised at Atlas' tone. "What kind of favor?", he asks. Atlas's voice is almost inaudible in its humility. "Could you make your way to Neptune's Bounty and find my family?", he requests. It was at this point that Raven had continued walking, and found himself in a small tavern area. Finally, he gives Atlas an answer. "Okay, I'll do it…" He says, then instinctively turns as the door closes behind him. "Just one question… How do I get there?"

Atlas responds first with a long sigh, then an even longer series of words and phrases that Raven didn't particularly enjoy hearing; words like, "journey", phrases like "rooms full of Splicers", and somewhere mixed into those words and phrases was the term "Footlight Theater". But of course, there was also an utterance of the phrase "Would you kindly…?", and how could Raven _possibly _refuse then? Like it or not, he finds himself on his way down the hall, following the "FOOTLIGHT THEATER" signs hanging on the walls. As the door at the end of the hallway (the name 'SECURIS' welded across the top) opens , he is greeted by humid air, the smell of rotting flesh(not that he could identify it at the time), and the sound of a little girl singing.

Could there be someone else here who hadn't become a splicer yet?

Raven hurries into the room. One quick look around was all he needed to confirm that he had reached the theater. Smooth brown wooden walls, a surprisingly well-kept red carpet covering the bottom floor, and a comfortably small stage protruding from the east wall. The room could've been considered fairly normal, if it weren't for the blood-stained theater chairs littering the floor… The sound of the little girl singing pulls his attention to the center of the floor, where an _actual _little girl was kneeling beside a corpse, repeatedly jabbing it in the hindquarters with a strange-looking needle gun with a glass bulb at the back. From where he stood, up in the rafters, it looked like she was…taking its blood. Though, Raven imagined it would look like that from _anywhere_ he stood.

Whatever song the little girl was singing didn't sound too much like a song a little girl had any business singing. Evidently, Raven wasn't the only one to hear it. Immediately after Raven sets foot on the thin metal rafters above the stage, Atlas' voice buzzes back in on the radio. "Would you kindly put away your…um…'weapon' for a minute?", he suggests, obviously referring to the wrench in Raven's right hand. He complies, tucking the wrench into his back pocket, then looks over the side of the rafters to watch the girl go about her little bizarro-autopsy routine. When Atlas next spoke, he spoke with disgust. "You think that's a little girl down there?", he asks in a spiteful tone. "Well, think again. It's called a Little Sister. Someone went and took a sweet little girl and turned her into a monster. Whatever you thought about morality up there on the surface, well that don't count for much down in Rapture, kid."

"What's she doing?" Raven asks as he continues to watch the Little Sister jab the corpse's rear end with the needle. "She's gatherin' ADAM from a splicer, most likely.", came Atlas in reply. "ADAM?", Raven inquired. Atlas _really _started to confuse the hell out of him then. "It's the genetic material that keeps Rapture alive.", he answered in an all-knowing voice. Everybody wants it, everybody needs it." At this point, watching the Little Sister work had grown painfully boring, and Raven continues across the rafters and down the stairs. He stops at a screened window; through which, he can see the Little Sister at face level. Her skin is a pale grey, her eyes are orangish-yellow and blank, and she wears no shoes, only a dirty and worn-out blue church dress and a tattered red ribbon; keeping her scruffy black hair in a crude little ponytail.

"_This_ is what you call a monster?", asks Raven as he approaches the window. "She looks completely harmless…" Atlas replied all too quickly, as if he'd been expecting Raven to say that. "Exactly.", he said in a voice laced with urgency. "It only _looks_ completely harmless. But get too close, and you'll be singing a much, much different tune." Raven prepares to leave through a door in the corner, when he notices a splicer enter the room behind the Little Sister. Instinctively (which is how he'd been doing lots of things today), he knocks on the glass to issue her a warning. The Little Sister stands and turns to see the splicer, then lets out a loud, frenzied scream as it approaches. The splicer, carrying a dull revolver, raises his arm and brings the gun's fuller down upon the Little Sister's head hard. As the Little Sister crumples to the ground, a low rumbling sound shakes the entire theatre. "Remember when I said not to go near a Little Sister?", Atlas asks. "You're about to find out why…"

The rumble escalates into an earthshaking roar. A massive figure leaps from the rafters and lands on the stage in a thick cloud of dust and splintered wood. The figure can be clearly seen when the smoke subsides; a huge, rotund humanoid creature in a strange bronzed diving suit. Its right hand has been replaced by a rusty oil-drill, it carries a tank on its back and wires connect in a tangled mess around its eerily-glowing helmet. The splicer, suddenly overcome with the will to live, empties the revolver's entire six-bullet chamber at the thing, but the bullets do little more than piss it off, to say the least. It charges at the poor, defenseless splicer and swings its drill arm in a horizontal arc, knocking it viciously into the wall, the force enough to split the plaster. The splicer stands, disoriented, as the armored creature fires up its drill and runs it straight through the splicer's lower abdomen. Oh, but it wasn't done there. After it got bored with the drilling, the thing then proceeded to bash the splicer's head repeatedly into the very window that Raven happened to be looking through.

A crack appears in the window. Then another. Then another. Before Raven could catch his breath, the splicer's head breaks through and the glass flies outward. A hail of clear, shimmering projectiles comes flying at Raven, who jumps away and thrusts his back against the nearest wall. The glass rain just barely misses him as he does so, and he slides down the wall into a sitting position to regain his composure. This is much easier said than done, seeing as how he can't take his eyes off the poor splicer, bent - no; bent was too insignificant a word- _broken_ over backward at the waist in the window. The creature beckons to the Little Sister, who seems to have made a full recovery, and follows him out of the theater, skipping happily. Atlas' voice breaks his focus on the splicer. "You alright there, boyo?", he asks as Raven stands and shudders uncontrollably.

"I'm fine.", was Raven's reply. At least all the recent trauma hadn't affected his ability to lie… "What the hell _was_ that thing, Atlas?" He hesitantly leans through the window, his face just inches from the splicer's body, making sure that the 'Dynamic Duo' were out of earshot. He leans back in as Atlas responds: "That's a Big Daddy. _She_ gathers Adam, _He_ keeps her safe…" Raven looks down, the splicer's dead eyes seemed to be pleading to him. He lowers his gaze further to occupy his mind, and notices the splicer's dull, empty revolver. "You won't be needing it anymore, will you, pal?", Raven says to his new friend the corpse as he pries the gun from its cold hand. A quick search of the splicer's pockets uncovers a few extra chamber rounds. Raven flips open the revolver's chamber and spins it, loading all six slots and putting the remaining bullets (he counted twenty-four of them) into his jacket pocket. He then walks through the door and finds himself in another hallway. "Alright, Atlas.", he says, examining the gun. "Where's Neptune's Bounty from here?"

Atlas took some quite some time to respond, but finally did. "You're just about halfway there, boyo. Just down this hallway should be the staircase down to the big split between Medical and Neptune's Bounty." With that, Raven set off down the hall and deeper into Rapture; deeper into the "land of opportunity"; deeper into the dirty little city that seemed to have just completely slipped God's mind…

-To Be Continued


	4. Chapter 3

Raven's World is finally back! It's been a while since the last episode, but prepare yourself for even more of Raven's adventures in Rapture, and check out what's been occupying the rest of my time: my new Kingdom Hearts Fanfic, 'After the End of the World'!

Raven's World: New Rapture

Episode Three: Raven, Rapture and Ryan

There's one thing you can be certain of down in Rapture, and that's _nothing_ is ever certain down in Rapture. Raven realizes that as he continues his search for the oh-so-elusive Neptune's Bounty. He arrives in a large hall, forking to the left and right. One path, the left, is marked by a neon sign reading 'MEDICAL', the other marked by a second sign reading 'NEPTUNE'. Naturally, he takes the right, and trips over a heap of metal. Yes, in Rapture, even the inanimate objects cause much pain and distress. He looks back at the culprit; a small, inactive machine. The awkwardly-built contraption consists of a primitive, rusted out motor, attached to a propeller mechanism, attached to a Thompson sub-machine gun(which seems to be the only part in good condition; possibly from recent use). "Atlas, you can see all this, right?", he asks into the radio. "What is this thing?"

"That's a security bot, boyo", came Atlas' voice. "It looks like it's been deactivated. Don't go messin' around with it." It was far too late for that… Raven had already knelt beside the little machine and was trying vigorously to free the Thompson from its grip. Brute force failing him, he decides to go straight to the wiring. In seconds, the security bot whirrs to life. A thick, accumulation of black smoke bursts from the motor, the propellers twitch, then go into full-spin and green blinking lights are now working rapidly. The machine buzzes around him, making odd sounds and sparking at the mechanical joints. Atlas seems impressed. "I'll be damned.", was his initial statement. "How'd you know how to hack these things?" "Hack…?", Raven asks, still fixed on the security bot. "You're telling me I just hacked it?"

Before Atlas could answer, a loud, resounding CLANK pervades the hall, coming from the 'MEDICAL' side of the fork. Raven tries to make distance between himself and the source, and makes a sprint for the 'NEPTUNE' doorway. As he draws near enough to Neptune's Bounty to see the booths and turnstiles beyond the door, the metal gate suddenly deploys on its own and keeps him locked out of Neptune's Bounty, locked in the hall and quite generally locked between fear and annoyance. The hall is bathed in a haunting red light as a loud alarm sounds. The decibel of the alarm is enough to make Raven lean against the metal gate for stability. The sound of numerous footsteps drowns out the alarm, the sound of metal scraping across tile floors drowns out the footsteps, and the sounds of insane splicer-babble drown out all three. Based on the voices alone, Raven guessed there had to be at _least _a dozen splicers headed in his direction. It was at times like this (though he doubted there was ever a time _precisely_ like this…) that he'd envision some horrified child, finding a cheap-yet-comforting sense of bravery in imagining what their heroes might do in their situation. Though he never really saw how children found wearing gaudy sweaters and singing about how wonderful a day it was in the neighborhood comforting, he figured it was worth a try…

"What would old Sherlock do…?", he asks out loud, remembering his favorite product of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. What _would_ old Sherlock do? What the hell _could _old Sherlock do? He'd find a clue and make a pinpoint deduction from the writing on the wall. However, Raven had no clue, and there was no writing on the wall that wasn't some insane political paroxysm. Right then, time for plan B… Raven reaches a trembling hand to his pocketed revolver.

"So, this is the entity that has occupied so much of Atlas' attention…", came a new voice over the radio. The voice was that of a despot. That much could be told just by the arrogant tone of each word it formed. The voice was of a despotic man; one who'd had everything and lost everything; one with no regard for consequences, no regard for human life, no regard for anything but victory. Nobody could ever accuse Raven of being a bad judge of character… The voice continued: "What business have you in my city, boy?" Atlas answers for Raven almost instantly. "And what business have_ you _locking up Neptune's Bounty, Ryan?", he retorts sharply. The second voice, now identified as "Ryan", replies in his same smooth-yet-suffering manner. "To question the creator of this city is to question the city itself; and those who question Rapture learn very quickly just how unpleasant its founder can be… Mr. McDonagh here is a testament to that…"

Splicers soon fill the hall as the service radio goes silent. Raven quickly checks the revolver's chambers and fires into a splicer's forehead, dropping him to the ground to be trampled by the rest of the attackers. With a click, the revolver switches over to the next available chamber as he fires again, and again, and again. Two rounds left before time to reload and no room to reload without getting swarmed, Raven backs away against Neptune's Bounty's metal gate in defeat. Suddenly, in a puff of black smoke, a repeating weapon can be heard firing ceaselessly. Raven looks up in relief to see the little security bot hovering by, spraying the splicers with gunfire and dropping them in large groups. He takes the time to slip through a gap in the splicer formation. one of the saner ones notices him and lunges with a pipe. Instinct takes over, and Raven spins to his rear and fires off one of the two remaining chambers. The round enters, and soon after, exits the splicer's forehead, painting the wall behind him a vivid crimson as the splicer slides down the wall with a heavy wheeze.

"You still alive in there, boyo?" Came Atlas' urgent tone over the radio. Raven turns to watch the occupied splicers chase after the wayward security bot, then answers calmly: "That depends a great deal on your opinion of 'alive'… Who was that on the radio earlier?"

"That was Andrew Ryan.", replied Atlas. Creator of the swimmin' hell we call Rapture. He built this city to 'get away from God and the government', so he claims… But since the Rapture Civil War, he's become a terrible combination of both…" Now alone in the hall, Raven takes the time to reload the revolver. "Rapture Civil War?", he inquires. "Another story for another time, boy.", said Atlas. "With the direct rout to Neptune locked off, you'll have to take the long way around through Medical."

Wanting badly to separate himself from the splicer-infested hallway, Raven makes a swift line for the door to medical, and out of the red glow of Ryan's security device. As the door to medical (the name 'SECURIS' welded across the top) closes, a lone splicer drops dead against it and slides down to its base with several punctures in its chest as a shotgun-toting figure stops in the center of the fork…

-To be continued


	5. Chapter 4

Raven's World: New Rapture

Episode Four: "The Doctor is Out (of His Mind)…"

The winding path to Medical was Hell in fifty forms. By the time Raven reaches the actual Pavilion, he is completely spent. He thrusts his back against the wall at the end of the hallway, slides into a sitting position and allows himself some respite. In a brief recap, he establishes that the walk here was likely the worst walk of his entire life, and he didn't see much in the way of potential improvement. If he had a nickel for every splicer he'd sent to Dreamland on the wrench express, he'd have enough vermouth to drink himself the hell out of Rapture and into the grave. He'd held his own against just that many of them, and damned if he didn't think he was getting good at it. The wrench and revolver were keeping him good company, and that fact was now apparent in their condition. The wrench, once a bright and shining scarlet color, perfectly symmetrical, was now a dull, dingy plasma red with dents and depressions, made by the more anatomically robust splicers. The revolver was in much better shape, which was more than could be said about the ammunition. Only four chambers occupied, and no spares to reload with. Any fighting to be done in Medical would have to be done with the wrench.

Once again, the ever-so-punctual Atlas chimes back in on the radio. "Alright, boyo-", he begins, his voice laced with understanding. "-Time to get movin' again. Now, would you kindly head on into Medical so we can get this over with?" Raven miraculously finds the energy to 'kindly head on into Medical'. As he ventures on, he observes that Atlas sure does make a habit of saying "would you kindly". He wasn't counting, but he didn't have to count to know that Atlas had used the oh-so-popular phrase at least a dozen times since he'd left the Footlight Theatre. He finally rules to dismiss it as a simple mannerism; something Atlas just probably happens to say a lot in casual conversation. Besides, Atlas' speech patterns were the least of his concerns right about now. Without a second thought on the matter, he presses on into the Medical Pavilion.

The only door that hadn't been blown right off it's hinges. The door of the operating room belonging to one "DR. J.S. STEINMAN", according to the blood-speckled imitation gold plaque that now hung crooked on its surface. Whatever was on the other side of that door, couldn't be good. This was more than a theory. It was Murphy's goddamn law. One would _think_ that when they'd hit Hell, the only place left to go was up. Well imagine _their_ surprise when they'd found themselves even _deeper_ in Hell; Just like one might _think_ that once they'd hit the Atlantic Ocean floor, they'd have nowhere to go but back to the warm, safe embrace of the surface…

…But no…

It didn't work like that…

Here was Rapture. Here was the next level of Hell...

…It was Murphy's goddamn law…

Raven is about to place a hand on the doorknob to Steinman's room, but first takes notice of the Medical Pavilion's condition. Walls of grime-sheeted ivory-tinted brick with more insane rantings and propaganda scrawled over them with God knows what. The lights above flicker weakly within their large circular fixtures. The cracked tile floors have been completely compromised in some areas, exposing much-less-pleasant floor basing, almost gray with filth. Splicers lay strewn about all over Medical's many hallways, each with their faces horribly disfigured (more so than the traditional splicer), some of which, the good doctor hadn't even bothered to remove the scalpels from. His grim surveillance is suddenly interrupted by a shrill, but haunting voice. "Aww, all the ADAM is gone.", came the voice, which Raven immediately recognized as that of a Little Sister. Suddenly, he feels extremely sick and unsettled… Little Sisters, he remembers, never travel alone…

Since awakening within the walls of Rapture, Raven learned early on to hate being right. Well, he'd caught on quick and had already begun to curse his luck when, as if it had been staged, the dim halls of Medical rumbled with the heavy plod of a Big Daddy's massive diving boots. As the sound draws nearer, Raven turns and sees the Little Sister who'd been speaking, this one wearing a tattered church dress like the last, but purple in color. A massive rounded shadow occupies the corner wall behind her, and the silhouette of a huge drill is enough to make him loosen his grip on his wrench and drop it. The Little Sister skips down the hall at a leisurely pace, and stops directly in front of him to get a good look at his face. Raven looks down at her, wanting to run, but afraid to make any sudden moves with the Big Daddy on his way down the hall. He'd never seen a Little Sister this close before, and it disturbed him. The closer they came, the less they looked like little girls, and more like monsters. Still, there was something in the Little Sister's behavior that let him know that the 'Monster' factor was only skin deep.

Not knowing what else to do, he smiles nervously at her and nods. She mimics him, and gives a short, laugh of interest. Raven is so fascinated by how friendly the Little Sister is that he fails to notice that her Big Daddy has just caught up with her. A huge, gloved hand, rough as sandpaper, pushes him away with enough force to knock him on his back and send him sliding a few feet. He looks up at the Big Daddy, hand still outstretched, standing behind its curious Little Sister. The Big Daddy lets out a low, menacing growl, as if to issue a warning, then starts away after the Little Sister, who has already found interest in something else, and is now almost to the end of the hallway. Atlas's voice over the radio never sounded so good (near death experiences will do that to you).

"Hey, boyo, are you still with me?", came Atlas's voice. He was making no effort to mask his concern. Raven replies quickly, hoping to distract himself (he'd been watching the Big Daddy since it sent him sliding down the hall). "Yeah, I'm fine.", he said. "This Big Daddy…Just pushed me and walked away". "Ah," began Atlas. "Good thing you didn't raise a weapon to his Little Sister… Big Daddies are harmless if you keep a fair distance away from those monsters…"

"So, attack the Little Sister, and they make sure you're not around to do it again…?" Raven paraphrases, all the while thanking God he'd dropped his wrench somewhere before the Big Daddy had time to notice it. His moment of terror now over, he returns his attention to Steinman's door. He turns the knob and gently leans against the door to open it, the hinges squealing with each given inch. So much for subtlety. On the other side of the door is a larger-than-average surgical room. The only light in the room came flickering in from the hall. The lights were dead in their fixtures, mangled splicers were literally everywhere, and many of them, like the ones in the hall, still had countless surgical tools driven deep into their faces. Overtaken by the grim scenery, Raven leans against the operating table, laying a hand on its surface. He quickly jumps and tightens his grip on his faithful wrench as his hand makes contact. Not only was the blood caking the table still wet, it was also warm…

"A-Atlas…?", Raven stammers. "Th-this Dr. Steinman… He _is _dead, isn't he…?" He'd rather get an answer from Atlas than take a guess and wind up being right again. "Well-", Atlas begins, but the radio picks up a dose of static loud enough to drown him out. "Atlas?", Raven calls, then repeats several times. Never had he hated technology so much before this very moment. Suddenly, he feels a sharp pain in the back of his head. His vision now terribly blurred, he drops to his knees in a struggle for consciousness. Everything in the room seems to be spinning at unholy speeds. His brain is throbbing; His pulse racing; His sight failing, he becomes too disoriented to struggle any longer. He shifts over to lie on his back, and catches a brief glimpse of a tall, eerie figure with a face hidden behind a blood-stained surgical mask, then falls swiftly into the embrace of unconsciousness…

…It was Murphy's goddamn law…

-To be continued


	6. Chapter 5

Raven's World: New Rapture

Episode Five: Another Link in the Great Chain

"Questions, questions, questions...!"

"My patients are always asking me questions!"

"...Sometimes, I like to make up the answers...hmhm..."

A loud groan of open frustration bolts Raven from his forced sleep. His attention is at first limited to the screaming pain in the back of his head, and he wondered what he could _possibly_ have been doing to cause such pain to himself. Then, of course, he realized once again that he was in Rapture, and his thoughts shifted to what he could _possibly_ have gotten into a fight with to cause such pain to him. It isn't until a few moments of pondering later that he remembers specifically where he is in Rapture... He'd made it to Medical, but making it _out _of Medical would prove much more troublesome.

Unable to break free of his laying-down position, Raven simply cranes his neck, straining for the best view of the room that he could manage. In his pathetic surveillance, he notices an all-too-familiar imitation gold plaque lying on the floor. Chiseled into it, were the words "DR. J.S. STEINMAN". This plaque, he remembers, was crudely hanging on the outer side of the door of the room in which he now lay. The plaque is now dented and considerably banged up, almost to the point of breaking in half. There was also a small streamline of semi-fresh blood trickling down the pale golden surface, implying that it was used as some kind of blunt weapon. To Raven, it followed that the blood trickling down the front of the plaque had to be his very own, and that his assailant (presumably this J.S. Steinman fellow) had somehow followed him inside the office after removing the plaque from the door, then gave him a good one in the back of the head and restrained him. Though he was able to figure all this out just by examining the plaque, he still couldn't quite understand how he could figure _anything_ out with the throbbing in his head straddling a thin line separating migraine from full on brain-damage.

Raven suddenly remembers the sound that he'd awakened to; a frustrated groan. Forcing himself half upright against his restraints on the surgical table, he tries to locate the source of the sound. Seated at a splintered wooden desk to his far left, was a man clad in a filth-spattered doctor's coat (which Raven presumed was originally white), and the traditional hospital surgeon apparatus; His thinned grey hair in twisted, dirty locks, swinging back and forth before his pale blue eyes as he typed furiously on the keyboard of a computer whose monitor had been broken wide open, and was now billowing with smoke. From his position on the belted table, Raven couldn't quite see the rest of the man's features, but a simple glance at the mutated skin on his arms was enough to establish that he was a Splicer, and nowhere near a normal one.

A weak belt on the table squeaks, and the Doctor turns immediately, with a stunned expression, his eyes half open and twitching violently. "Well," he says, standing at last from the broken console. "Look who's finally awake... I am the esteemed Dr. J.S. Steinman, and I'll be your active surgeon..." Raven's eyes widen at his words. "Active surgeon?", he repeats in alarm. "I think I would remember signing myself up for surgery!" Steinman walks beside the table, examining his rusted out, blood-stained tools and whistling. "Oh, but _you_ didn't sign up for anything, my boy...," he says finally. "I did. I mean look at you; imperfections as clear as day, and they're everywhere!" Raven couldn't help but be the least bit offended.

"Don't worry though...," Steinman says, approaching the table with a scalpel. "I've been talking to Aphrodite again... Soon, your body will be as flawless as mine!" Perhaps it was a sign, or perhaps God just thought it would be worth a few laughs, but just as soon as Steinman makes this statement, his right eye begins to shift upward until he is able to see the inside of his own head. "Oh, just ignore that...," he chuckles in a sick sort of embarrassment, turning his back to realign his eye, the way one might turn away from a conversation to politely yawn. He turns back so suddenly that Raven has no time to register his movement, and simply jumps in confusion. "Now then, let's begin!" He leans over Raven on the operating table, scalpel in hand. Their faces are so close, that Raven believes he can smell the crazy on Steinman's breath. Steinman whistles the tune of Henry Hall's "Here Comes the Boogeyman" as he lightly prods an area just below Raven's eye with the scalpel; not hard enough to break the skin, but hard enough to make Raven reluctantly blink. "Ah, there we are. That's the starting point!", he exclaims, marking the spot below Raven's eye by etching an 'X' with his scalpel and confirming it by pressing his thumb against the center of the mark. Even with the surgical glove on, Steinman's body tempurature was shockingly low. "It won't be long now..."

Steinman returns to the table on which his tools sit at the ready and retrieves an electric surgical saw, then plugs it in and returns to Raven's table. "Right then.", he begins as the saw starts up, the rust-covered circular blade spinning in place. "This'll be over before you know it!" Steinman once again leans over Raven, lowering the saw toward the spot he'd previously marked. Raven struggles with every available muscle, but still, the bonds holding his arms and legs in place prove to be more durable than they look. Suddenly, a loud BOOM resounds throughout the operating, room, and the next thing Raven knows, Steinman is tumbling backward, his face bloodied, saw still in hand. He cranes his neck over a bit to see a figure in a dingy yellow sweater covered with blood stains. His eyes are dull and emotionless, and on both his wrists are tattoos of what seem to be chain links. He holds a shotgun in his right hand...

The barrel is still smoking...

"I thought I was the only one stuck down here...", the newcomer says blankly. "What's your story?" The newcomer holsters his shotgun at his waist and begins undoing the restraints keeping Raven bound to the table. The stranger just barely finishes one restraint (the one binding Raven's left wrist) before a scalpel comes flying by his face. The stranger grits his teeth and looks up to see Dr. Steinman standing again, one hand tightly clutching the surgical saw, the other clasped over his bleeding face. "Another patient?", he screams, his breathing becoming audible. "...And he's UGLY! HE'S HIDEOUS! I MUST OPERATE AT ONCE!" He charges the newcomer with surprising speed, and arrives at the operating table before the stranger has a chance to brandish his shotgun again. He raises the saw high and prepares to bring it down upon the newcomer's head, but Raven grabs Steinman's wrist with his free hand and sends a lethal amount of electricity through the Doctor's body. Steinman recoils and tries to pull his arm free, but the newcomer attacks with a plasmid of his own, knocking Steinman across the room with a fireball, generated from his left hand. Raven stares at the newcomer in astonishment. "You too...?", he asks sheepishly. The figure nods and quickly undoes the rest of the restraints. Raven sits up quickly, and the two of them turn to face the Mad Doctor as he stands yet again, clutching his face. "Got a weapon...?", the figure asks as Raven prepares an electrified fist. "I _did_," Raven replies. "But who knows what that whackjob's done with it...?" The stranger nods a confirmation and tosses Raven a Thompson that he'd been toting around on his back. "pay me back by not dying...", he says as Steinman charges at them, with an enraged shriek.

"These patients are too restless...", Steinman mutters to himself, caressing the teeth of his surgical saw, his fingers becoming redder and redder with each passing second. "I MUST APPLY A SEDATIVE IMMEDIATELY!" With his newly-bloodied hand, he projects a jet of intensely cold air. Raven tumbles backward, landing in a kneel beside the figure as the cold air hits the surgical table, encasing it thoroughly in ice in a matter of seconds. "Oh, how nice...", Raven groans with much sarcasm. "Should've known he'd be all spliced up." He steadies the Thompson in both hands and unloads, pelting Steinman with gunfire. Steinman seems more enraged than hurt, shrieking frantically and hurling blasts of icy wind all over the room. In no time at all, more than half the room is frozen over. Raven, who'd taken cover behind a stack of supply crates during Steinman's assault, takes the ceasefire opportunity to look around and locate his new ally, who was already charging at Steinman, shotgun gripped tightly in one hand. He leaps over the surgical table, kicks Steinman to the ground and preps the shotgun to fire. Steinman shrieks awkwardly and freezes over the barrel of the shotgun being pointed at him. With a grunt of frustration, the stranger withdraws, placing his left hand on the ice and using his plasmid to melt it. "Cover me while I fix this thing!," he barks to Raven, who gulps and reloads his machine gun.

Quickly sliding out of cover, Raven hurls a bolt of lightning at Steinman, who ducks beneath a desk to avoid the blast, then hops over it to take a frenzied swing at his attacker with his electric saw. "JUST BE STILL!," he howls. "I'M AN ARTIST! AN ARTIST! THE GODDESS TOLD ME SO HERSELF!" Raven lunges backward to avoid Steinman's assault, landing on his backside and instantly feeling a stinging sensation on his face. He runs his finger along his cheek, feeling the warmth of his own blood from where the saw had impacted. "Are you any closer to thawing that thing out?", he calls to the stranger with the shotgun. "He's getting considerably good at this...!" The figure groans and tosses the shotgun carelessly behind him. "No good, the ice is too thick...," he said. "We'll just have to go to plan B..." Raven rolls to his side and joins the stranger on the other side of the room. "Plan B?," he exclaims, training the Thompson on the rapidly approaching mad doctor. "What the hell is plan B?" The stranger points over to a set of surgical tools impaled into a poor nameless splicer in the corner. "Bring me one of those tools", he whispers urgently, searching for more cover, and finally finding it behind a large crate. "The sharper the better." Raven nods dutifully and rolls across the room to the splicer pin-cushion, retrieving a scalpel and tossing it to his new companion who catches it by the handle and lets it fly toward the mad doctor, pinning him right between the eyes. "These tools are metal!", he hints, instantly prompting Raven to fire off another bolt of lightning into the metal tool, causing Steinman to twitch and convulse violently before dropping to his knees and dropping his face onto the surgical table, pushing the scalpel in to the point where it nearly disappears.

"Son of a bitch...", the newcomer mutters, retrieving his shotgun and grimacing as he inspects the barrel. "Who knows how long this thing's gonna take to thaw out...? Anyway, who are you, and how'd you even get down here?" Raven sighs and slackens his grip on the practically empty machine gun. "Name's Raven.", he replies with a shaky grin. "And I'm not exactly sure how I got here, I woke up at a bathysphere hangar with the mother of all headaches... Who do I have to thank for interrupting the...'surgery'...?" The stranger holsters the shotgun and wipes his forehead with his sleeve. "Jack.", he says distantly. "I was on a plane that crashed in the ocean near the lighthouse... Couldn't find any other survivors..." Raven stiffens at Jack's words. A plane crash? Could the two of them have been on the same flight?

"What were you doing before Steinman got to you...?", Jack asks, breaking Raven's focus on his thoughts. He shakes his head quickly and manages to utter, "I was...on my way to Neptune's Bounty." Jack offers a single nod and suddenly starts off down a set of stairs behind the surgical table, stepping over the thoroughly fried doctor. Raven quickly stands and follows him, spying his wrench on a shelf beside the stairs and clutching it tightly like the hand of an old friend. "Where are you going?", he asks. "Neptune...", was Jack's blunt response. "Steinman isn't the only thing to watch out for along the way."

"Wait, you mean there are more like him?"

"More like him...?"

"Splicers that are stronger than normal ones."

"Oh. Yeah... Lots more."

"You're not exactly helping my confidence here..."

"Wasn't exactly trying to... Anyway, if we're gonna get to Neptune, we're gonna need to re-supply..."

"Right. Ammo comes first..."

"Sure, we could use more ammo, but I'm talking about plasmids and ADAM..."

Raven stops in his tracks at the mention of ADAM. "That red stuff all the splicers are killing each other for...? I thought only Little Sisters carried a decent amount on them at one time..."

"That's right...", Jack says with a grave nod. "We'll need to get a Little Sister..."

"Which means we'll have to-"

"Exactly. First, we have to deal with the Big Daddy that's guarding her..."

"...Fuck..."


End file.
